Traditionally, gaming systems with a dedicated console were standalone machines that accommodated a limited number of players (e.g., 2-4 players). Personal computer-based gaming grew in popularity in part due to the ability to play games online with many remote players over the Internet. Thus, one trend for dedicated gaming systems is to provide capabilities to facilitate gaming over a network, such as Internet-based online gaming.
Online gaming can be implemented in a centralized-server approach or a peer-to-peer approach. In the centralized-server approach, gaming systems connect to one or more centralized-servers and interact with one another via this centralized-server(s). In the peer-to-peer approach, gaming systems connect to one another and interact with one another directly. However, even in the peer-to-peer approach, a centralized server(s) may be employed to assist in the communication, such as an initial match-making service to help gaming systems find one another.
One problem encountered in employing such a centralized server(s) is to protect network traffic between the server(s) and the gaming systems from tampering or observation by other devices on the network. Gamers are notorious for developing creative cheating mechanisms, making the network traffic a ripe target for such users. Unfortunately, previous console-based gaming systems typically did not provide for secure communications with a centralized server(s). An additional problem is that any mechanism used to protect the network traffic should not require a significant amount of the gaming system's resources, as it should devote those resources to the games being played. The mechanism also should not require a significant amount of the centralized server's resources, in order to enable more gaming systems to be handled by fewer centralized server(s).
The secure key exchange with mutual authentication described below solves these and other problems.